Indonesia Sends Home Two Ailing Britons Serving Prison Terms on Drug Charges

The Associated Press

11:30 JST, November 7, 2025

DENPASAR, Indonesia (AP) — Two British nationals who were imprisoned in Indonesia on drug charges were returning to the United Kingdom early on Friday following an agreement between the two nations.

Indonesian authorities escorted Lindsay Sandiford and Shahab Shahabadi to the airport on the tourist island of Bali ahead of their flight home.

Sandiford, 69, was arrested in 2012 and has been held on death row for drug offenses. Shahab Shahabadi, 35, was serving a life sentence imposed in 2014.

The pair were on a flight leaving Bali early Friday, senior official Yusril Ihza Mahendra told The Associated Press. They will fly to Doha before continuing to London.

Mahendra, who is the coordinating minister for law, human rights, immigration and correctional institutions, has previously said both British nationals have serious health problems.

The repatriation deal was signed by Mahendra and British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper on Oct. 21 after months of talks, said I Nyoman Gede Surya Mataram, the Deputy Minister for Immigration and Correctional Coordination.

“This process demonstrates Indonesia’s credibility in the international legal cooperation scheme,” Mataram said. He added that health conditions of both prisoners — Sandiford has diabetes and hypertension, while Shahabadi suffers from mental disorders — was a major consideration in this process.

Sandiford was arrested after arriving in Bali on a flight from Bangkok. Authorities found 3.8 kilograms (8.4 pounds) of cocaine worth $2.5 million hidden in the lining of her suitcase. During her trial, she said she was forced to carry the drugs by a gang that threatened her children.

In January 2013 she was sentenced to death by firing squad and Indonesia’s highest court upheld it seven months later. She has been imprisoned in Kerobokan female prison on Bali island.

The severity of the sentence met with shock because prosecutors had not recommended the death penalty for her. The ruling was condemned by the British government and anti-death sentence activists.

Shahabadi was arrested in Jakarta as part of an investigation into an international drug trafficking network. Prosecutors said he sent 30 kilograms (15 pounds) of methamphetamine powder in several shipments from Iran to his partner for distribution in Jakarta.

He has been imprisoned in Nusa Kambangan prison island, known as the Alcatraz of Indonesia, since 2014 and was moved Thursday to Bali ahead of his repatriation.

Sandiford and Shahabadi were taken from Kerobokan Prison in Denpasar, the provincial capital of Bali province, on Thursday evening in a minibus to the airport where they boarded a commercial flight at 00.30 local time on Friday.

They made no comment to a crush of reporters when they were presented in a joint news conference at the prison compound between Mataram and Matthew Downing, the U.K.’s deputy ambassador to Indonesia.

“Lindsay Sandiford and Shahab Shahabadi have serious health conditions and are being repatriated on humanitarian grounds,” said Downing. He thanked the Indonesian government for the transfer, and said the British government was open to talks about Indonesians imprisoned in the U.K..

“We are ready to discuss it.” he said, adding: “There hasn’t been any request so far, but if one comes through, we are connected to considering it in line with our laws and procedures.”

About 530 people are on death row in Indonesia, mostly for drug-related crimes, including nearly 100 foreigners, the Ministry of Immigration and Corrections’ data shows. Indonesia’s last executions, of a citizen and three foreigners, were carried out in July 2016.

Indonesia under President Prabowo Subianto has sent several foreign prisoners home under bilateral agreements with their countries. They included a Filipina who faced the death penalty for drugs and five Australians convicted of heroin trafficking, and Serge Atlaoui, an ailing French national on death row who has spent almost 20 years in an Indonesian prison for drug offenses.